Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Pop Culture References in Books

After reading a book that alluded
to songs that were supposedly popular but not actually saying either a real
name or a fake name of a band and song I started thinking about how authors
deal with pop culture references in books.

For instance, in Meg Cabot’s
Princess Diaries books she actually refers to the real life artists etc. There is a mention of Britney Spears in the
books. Other books refer to products
such as iPhone’s etc. This tends to add
in a realistic feel to it. However, it
also dates the books. I do know of
instances where some of the books have been updated to go with the changes but
those are in the minority.

I don’t have any examples off
the top of my head but there are some books that make up pop culture in the
books universe and talk about those as being what’s in or popular at the
time. One example I can think of is the
Airhead books by Meg Cabot, they feature celebrity Gabriel Luna.

Then there are the other ones that
just allude to some singer or song being popular without actually mentioning a
name or title. I can’t really think of any
books off the top of my head but there are some that do.

It’s something that I’ve often
thought about and it makes me wonder which one is better to do and I think that
in some situations the different ones are better. I think that the one I’m the least favourable
of is the one that mentions the actual pop culture reference such as Britney
Spears etc. because it does date the book a little bit although it doesn’t
bother me as much as it could.

I think that I prefer the ones
where they actually don’t mention a name or title or anything like that at all
because it means that you can imagine it for yourself depending on when you
read the book.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on
pop culture references in books. Do you
have any thoughts to add?